PROBLEM: Creating Products by focusing on features
I’ve been reading the book Subject to Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World by the gents from Adaptive Path. As I was reading through this practical resource everything started to click and I had one of those “Ah ha” moments. I’ve been working with TRImagination, Ideabreaker and fynd.it to design great products that are logically layed out and have the features that no one else has thought of. That may be great and grand, but in reality its not. Anyone can come up with unique features, but all this does is create a feature war between you and competitors. If this continues there will never be any real winner.
SOLUTION: Creating Products by focusing on the End User Experience
The defining factor between a good product and a great product is a product that creates a fabulous experience for the end user. This includes flawless execution, no errors and more importantly appeal to the emotions of the user. If they find it hard to use, run into unexpected errors or they can not connect with your product they will not want to use it again. This is where first impressions mean everything!!!
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE: MP3 Players vs. Apple’s iPod vs. Microsoft’s Zune
Yes, there were MP3 players on the market before Apple released the iPod, but Apple took the features set of the average MP3 player and made it into an experience for the product users. Yes, they had sweet, new features (spin when, great design, etc…) but what established the iPod as the king was the culture it created with the users. Microsoft then tried to do the same riding on the coat tails of Apple’s success with the Microsoft Zune. Their error is that they saw this only as a feature war with Apple rather than a experience or culture. In general, Apple is famous for some of the best User Experiences (UX) throughout history. That is why the initial launch of the Zune was not a huge hit.
Needless to say, I’ve been going back and restructuring alot of my thoughts to be more focused on how can I make sure my product connects with the user. Anyone that is involved in product development, whether it is a physical or web based product I strongly urge you to read Subject to Change. It will help change you mindset when it comes to planning your user experience and developing your products.
PROBLEM: STARTUP DEPRESSION
- Most of you have read articles on the “startup depression” by Jason Calacanis, Fred Wilson, etc… and they are right for the most part.
SOLUTION: GET LEAN
- Move out the posh, super modern offices and go back to your beginning (aka your garage).
- Cut out those expensive “wine & dine” events for your buddies on the company tab. Remember the days back in college or the garage where it was just pizza, programming and beer?
- CxO’s, instead of firing your people to lean up, cut your own salaries. Sell your kickass Mercedez or BMW company SUVs and get Honda. You can survive on less, your employees that work their butts off to make you successful and they need that job.
I’m not going to bother you with the detail of my crappy day, but I was listening through my iPod and “We Made It” by Linkin Park and Busta Rhymes came on and it did reminded me to keep my head up and eventually it will get better… Below is the second verse and it ready just hit home.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yo
When it all got started we were steadily
Just getting rejected
And it seemed like nothin’ we could do
would ever get us respected
At best we were stressed at the worst
They probably said we’re pathetic
Had all the pieces to that puzzle
Just the way to connect it
I was fighting through every rhyme
Tightening up every line
Never restin’ the question if I
Was out of my mind
It finally came time to do it and let it die
So we put the chips on the table and
Told them to let it ride, sing it (yeah)”
Paul Betlem of Adobe said that Adobe Flash Player would be available for the Apple iPhone, but only when Apple gives the thumbs up. To read more: http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/flash_for_the_iphone_confirmed_at_fotb/
This is the question that has been captured my mind the last few days.
As most know, I am co-founder and Chief Geek (aka CDO) at TRImagination, an educational startup (edu-startup) focused on creating a better solution to digital textbooks.
We’ve been working since last November to put this project on paper and get it funded. Currently, we have a business plan, we are now working on a demo (we will have that ready early nexy week)… then this week rolls around and the bottom falls out of the market and then @JasonCalacanis (Jason’s blog post) & @fredwilson (Fred’s blog post) about startups having issues getting financed cause of the lousy economy and I have to agree with the points they made.
Here at TRImagination have gotten this far in 10 months without financing (except from our own pockets… which for a recent college grad with school loans isn’t alot) by being lean, flexible, extremely persistant and very resourceful. We are working our butts off to find a small investment to help us excellerate our development and get a full product to market.
For those have startups out there what are you doing to stay standing in these rough times?
Central Virginia Tweetup
- WHO: YOU and your Friends!
- WHAT: Central Virginia Tweetup
- WHEN: October 1 @ 545PM
- WHERE: Hilton Garden Inn (map)
- WHY: We are doing something a bit different. We are adding a twist… Speed Networking. Every 10 minutes we will rotate tables so we everyone can meet each other.
- RSVP: If we have 20 people show up they are going to provide us with a free conference room. So RSVP to @donaldleegraham or @CherylSmith999 today!
The Problem!
Ok, when most people here eLearning they associate it with boring computerized, voice-over PowerPoint presentations on sexual harassment. Sure its cheap to produce, but who really learns from these training products?
Want a solution?
In the next version of eLearning its going to be more about “edutainment”.
3 Suggestions for eLearning 3.0:
- Add humor
- Make the training interactive.
- Build a training community, so that learning continues after the training is done.
If you need some help with this or want to bounce some ideas off me, you can contact me via email (donaldleegraham-at-gmail.com) or drop me a tweet on Twitter .
Image courtsey of videocrab on Flickr.
PROBLEM
- I’ve been horrible about writing blog posts over the last couple of months and even those blogs posts were a bit too long for the average person.
SOLUTION
- I’m going to blog at least once a week.
- Each post is going to be at the most a couple of small paragraphs, so I don’t bore you!
I think more people should shorten their posts to help with user engagement. Just my $0.02!
The other day I stumbled across Balsamiq Studios and their Mockup software. I started playing with it and fell in love. This is a fabulous Adobe AIR application that makes creating mockups for software, website, RIAs, and even small webapps a breeze.
WHO: YOU!!!
WHAT: Central VA Tweetup (2nd of the year)
WHEN: August 28, 2008 @ 5:45PM EST
WHERE: Hilton Garden Inn (click here for map)
WHY: To network with geeks and business people of the area.
RSVP: Please message @donaldleegraham or @CherylSmith999 no later that 8/25 and let us know how many set we need to reserve.
